More knee surgery on horizon for Carimi

Tackle expected to need 4 months to rehabilitate

Bears rookie Gabe Carimi will need more surgery to repair his right knee and will need four months to rehabilitate. (Brian Cassella/Tribune photo)

Gabe Carimi will soon undergo surgery to repair his right knee and the Bears' first-round draft pick is expected to need about four months to rehabilitate.

Carimi, who was injured during the second quarter of the Week 2 game in New Orleans, had arthroscopic surgery on the knee Nov. 11 and the decision has been made for him to have a more involved procedure that should strengthen and tighten his knee, according to an NFL source.

It's expected the right tackle will be ready for full participation well in advance of training camp even though it took three months to reach the decision to have the surgery. Carimi suffered a subluxation of the knee — essentially a dislocation — similar to an injury he suffered during a career as a four-year starter at Wisconsin.

Scouts for two NFL teams told the Tribune they had a yellow medical grade on Carimi entering the draft. Before the Dec. 11 game in Denver, Bears general manager Jerry Angelo acknowledged the Bears had a similar grade on the player they selected with the 29th overall pick.

The scouts for the other teams were clear the medical grade would not have prevented them from drafting Carimi, but that it was an assessment he might require "maintenance" during an NFL career after a decorated run with the Badgers that was capped by him winning the 2010 Outland Trophy as the nation's top lineman.

"We had a concern when he came out," Angelo said. "He dislocated his knee (in college). And we had a medical grade. (It) was a concern, but he played with it. And we've had guys do it and play with it, no more so than a guy gets an ACL, gets his knee repaired and you draft him. As long as he passes your medical filter, you're fine. Most of these guys have something. He had something. He played a ton.

"Nobody flunked him (medically). Sometimes, you get a knee and you say, 'Well, there's a lot of gray' and then you say, 'We don't want to get even close to that.' It wasn't that. His knee was structurally sound, everything was fine."

The Bears used the 14th pick in the 2008 draft on offensive lineman Chris Williams, who had a documented disk issue in his back that led some teams to remove him from their draft boards. Williams had surgery during training camp of his rookie season and has been fine since.

Carimi was selected 15 picks later than Williams, and nearly everyone was in agreement he was the best available offensive tackle at the time. The Bears tried to trade up three slots with the Ravens to ensure they got Carimi.

"In this case, his medical wouldn't have stopped us from taking him higher," Angelo said.

One veteran scout said a yellow medical grade is an indicator of something to watch for but primarily a tiebreaker when it comes to the draft process. If a player had poor character and a yellow grade, that might eliminate him from consideration. Carimi came with high marks and offensive line coach Mike Tice said he was the team's best lineman at the time of the injury.

"Everything is good," Angelo said.

It will be better when Carimi is back on the field with the Bears counting on him being a pillar of the line for seasons to come.